Review in a Nutshell: Few works of cinematic speculative fiction deserve the word ‘visionary’ to describe their aesthetic. Dark City is one such film, although Paul deducts a few points for the bombastic nature of the movie’s conclusion.

Spoilers:
What I find interesting about the film is that there is a possibility that the city dwellers do not know anything about Earth. How can they get to Earth if they do not know anything about it?

Furthermore, the protagonist effectively becomes God at the end of the film. Will he tell the whole truth the city dwellers, or will he continue to let them live in their allegory of the cave/ Matrix predicament

I also see some similarities with the anime, The Big O, which is also good.

To Daryl’s point about Director’s Cut versus Theater Cut: To reference “The Matrix” again, imagine if Morpheus’s infodump speech from the middle of the movie had instead been put as a voiceover right at the beginning.

I think it’s a little harsh to say Alex Proyas was responsible for Brandon Lee’s death. If you really wanted to make him feel bad, all you need to say is: “Everything you made after Dark City, and by some accounts, before.”

Jung-Ho – I don’t think it is, actually. Proyas is the one who sent the Armorer home (or let the Producer do it) to save a few bucks in the budget when he knew he had a scene using live weapons scheduled. As somebody who’s worked on low low budget movies, we were usually really careful to make sure the Armorer and Fight Choreographer stayed on-set if there was any chance we’d get to a gun or fight scene.

I’m amazed he didn’t get tried for Negligent Homicide under the circumstances. I’m sure Proyas feels guilty as Hell about it now – but that isn’t bringing Brandon Lee back, is it…?

Interesting. I didn’t know that. That’s my knee-jerk to jump to the defense of Mr. Proyas, who once said that he makes movies so infequently because he’s waiting for just the right script. (No kidding)

PHANTOM…. would probably make a better Greatest Movie Ever than ROCKY HORROR, which has been done pretty much to death – especially by nonfans. I was a huge ROCKY HORROR fan in college and it still holds a warm spot in my heart, but I’ve read too many articles and blog posts, and heard too many podcasts, done by people who don’t get why it’s such a huge cult hit and think it’s really stupid.

PHANTOM…. is a brilliant, subversive and not very well known music business satire/horror fantasy done with real verve by Brian DePalma. I think Paul and co-host could get into a smart discussion of it because there wouldn’t be the cultural phenomenon that they’re not a part of to set their teeth on edge….

And…. having listened to this entire podcast, despite your having Surat as one of your co-host? I really think you shouldn’t do ROCKY HORROR, Paul – it’s not your kind of movie, and I don’t think your disinterest would yield any fresh insights.

Paul – Rufus Sewell starred in the US version of the television series THE 11TH HOUR, played the title character in the BBC mystery series ZEN, and was the insane Hapsburg prince in THE ILLUSIONIST. He’s been around….

timeliebe: Hold on a second! All I remember insulting was the cover art to a book I never heard of in which the person illustrated appeared to look more like a Best Buy employee than a fantasy hero, to which you said “we have no say over the cover art to the book” at which point it was revealed “oh okay, you guys wrote this book.” This is my mind means that I’m not insulting either of you, but whoever the artist was. Like my role model Norman Osborn, I’m not going to apologize for thinking that cover was goofy because I believed that sincerely.

However, anything else other than that I don’t remember, so I’ll apologize for whatever those were. If this is “not good enough” or “too arrogant” or “not worth the trouble,” you’re going to have to spell things out for precisely what you’re looking for because I only need vocally speak when recording podcasts on account that I only physically see other people a few times a year, for a few hours each time. All of my other interactions are conducted just like this: text between boxes.

As for the cover art – well, yes, that’s been a long-standing bone of contention between Tammy and some of her publishers, who end up chasing current trends rather than being true to what the story itself is about. Few writers have the power to actually dictate what cover art looks like – “giving an author input on covers” means they send the author a rough, and when s/he points out that it’s not true to the story or the characters don’t look a thing like that the editor says “Oh, but our Market Research tells us these covers will make your book sell huge!” – and then they blame the author when the books with those covers tank.

One of the best things about eBook self-publication is that an author has a lot more control over his/her cover art – of course, the author also has to secure that art somehow, which can be a pain. I shudder to think of what cover art a publisher like Simon & Schuster or HarperCollins would have given Paul for his collections PORN GNOMES or SAQSQUATCH RIDES A HARLEY….